Trim-triminee trim trim

Sore fingers ahoy! I added an extra SIX belt loops to the riding breeches last night, which was pretty tricky in places because of all the thicknesses of fabric around the pockets etc. I also unpicked one side of the zip, moved the fabric over a bit and hand picked it back in place. I wasn’t happy with the way this lofty, almost stretchy fabric had shifted after my ‘invisble’ zip insertion, and was exposing the zip…especially as it isn’t much of a colour match!

It should be better now!

Then I cracked on with sewing the trim onto the skirt drapery- I’ve used a strip of lilac selvage, as I love the fluffy edge/ That’s topped with a narrower strip of the silver satin, machined down the centre only. I pleated it using my 2nd home-made pleating board, with narrower pleats than I used for the skirt. The whole caboodle topped with the narrow sequin strip. Excessive by modern taste, rather restrained by Victorian standards, where more is definitely more! Here are a few examples from my Pinterest ‘trimmings’ board:

And here’s my work so far.

There will be a narrower, non fluffy version of the trim around the bodice neckline too. I’ve used the sequin strip on the sleeve cuffs, as you can see, and it’s also going round the side and bottom edges of the back drape piece [not the train, that will be plain…probably]. The embroidered motifs are for the bodice, most likely at the bottom of the front. I wasn’t sure at first, because the lilac of these trims is more pink than blue, but it’s grown on me, and does offer a nice relief from the vast amounts of fabric in a Victorian gown!

It’s actually not that faffy to do, I’m more or less just tacking it on with a running/backstitch, through all thicknesses at once. This is not historically inaccurate- trims were added and removed quite often to update or liven up a basic dress, or for cleaning. None of this stuff ever went in a washing machine, 30 degrees wool wash or not!

Another view of that red dress from above

I’m feeling very drawn to those rosettes with dangles…hmmmm

And of course, payday week means a couple of ebay purchases. The first arrived yesterday. It’s not earmarked for anything specific, but it’s soooooo priddy, and I have 6m!

We’re off for a steampunk perambulation this afternoon, shops and a tea room. I think the breeches deserve an outing- so I can leave the corset off and eat more cake of course. Mind you, then I won’t be able to do the green jacket up. Bum!

I kept seeing it being done elsewhere in the blog-0-verse, Shams does it a lot…not all selvages are interesting, but when they are, it seems such a shame to just chuck it in the bin doesn’t it. I’m going trim-happy with this lot!